Death of bin Laden spreads like wildfire on Twitter, Facebook, Google

News of the killing by US forces of Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the devastating 9/11 terrorist attacks a decade ago, has become something of a new media phenomenon.

The news, which was announced late last night in the US, took the world by surprise. Before official confirmation from US President Barack Obama, CNN reporter Steve Brusk tweeted the news.

He was followed shortly by Keith Urbahn, chief of staff of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Both Urbahn’s and Brusk’s tweets experienced traffic spikes of 4,000 tweets per second, according to reports.